>Kelton wrote:
>
>> glass, near-mint body, and what looked like a blown-out tire for the
>> rubber focus and zoom rings. That's right, the rubber rings were
>> perforated, slashed, and hanging together like a deteriorated rubber
>> band, although the 'diamond points' of the rubber focus ring
>> were still
>> sharp from lack of use. I did not buy it. But still, I
>> wonder, is this
>> the future for every Zuiko lens? Is it inevitable that the rubber
>> focus/zoom rings will deteriorate and fall off all our
>> beloved lenses?
Yes, eventually. Rubber is not a "permanent" material (what is permanent
anyway?), it expands, loses its elasticity, starts to "flow" or becomes
brittle and breaks. I don't know what the exact environmental conditions
are, that will provoke this and I don't know, whether this follows certain
chemical rules, I am not a chemist. But by observing the pieces in my
collection which have rubber parts, some in an advanced state of
deterioration, some still good, I know it will eventually be the fate of
them all to decompose.
If you are a user, it's easy to replace a deteriorated rubber sleeve with a
strip of black plastic mat of adequate thickness and pattern, cut to size
and glued on with contact cement. There will be a line, where the 2 ends
meet, but chosen adequately, this can almost disappear with the surface
pattern and it's black anyway.
If you are a collector, I have no recipe for you. It seems to help - at
least temporarily - to treat the rubber with glycerine but it's no cure-all
either.
If you want longevity, try to avoid rubber (or foam, for that matter) and
go with lenses of knurled metal rings. Unfortunately, they were all but
replaced by the rubber fashion in the 70ies. An example, that new is not
always better.
Andras Iklody-Szabo
Caracas / Venezuela
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